Jet Zero Strategy and Climate Change

Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about aviation and climate change. As the largest contributor to UK emissions, decarbonising our transport sector must be a priority and aviation is a key part of that.

As you are no doubt aware, the Committee on Climate Change has warned that aviation is likely to be the largest emitting sector in the UK by 2050, even with strong progress on technology and limiting demand. Its latest progress report, released in June, highlights that no progress has been made in addressing demand in the sector.

I am extremely concerned that the Government continues to fail to act on the climate crisis. I agree that the Department for Transport’s long-awaited Jet Zero Strategy falls short of meeting the challenges we face. I worry it rests on optimistic assumptions and speculative technological breakthroughs, which are either in their infancy or do not yet exist. It has also said it is not considering introducing a frequent flyer levy.

In addition, the Government’s decision to cut Air Passenger Duty (APD) on domestic flights is expected to result in a 3.5% increase in passenger journeys and I believe it should not have gone ahead with this. We should be encouraging people to use our train network for those journeys instead.

Chronic delays to airspace modernisation, the risk of relying on emerging technologies and the cut to domestic APD have all hampered the race to ‘Jet Zero’. We now need to see concrete policy and a focus on delivering what is actually possible.

Although there is no single solution to aviation decarbonisation, one of the quickest ways to decarbonise the air around our airports is to implement the airspace modernisation programme. More widely, the UK is well-placed to seize the opportunities of the economic, environmental, fuel and food security benefits that the increased use of sustainable aviation fuels could bring and we cannot afford to be left behind.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this issue.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP